Steam & Excursion > SP's local Passenger trains played a big part

In the early 1950's SP had a large fleet of local passenger trains in operation.....In shot # one, 2463 is working train 246, minus the RPO as the railroads had lost the mail contracts....Was it a big mistake?, the government said it cost too much to use RPO and they went to hipo (hiway Post office)...But there was a network of Post office trucks that shuttled mail to the passenger stations and most were sorted already, but when they reached the RPO, they were sorted again...It was possible to get a mail written in Martinez and dropped off in Davis and received the same day...Just to give one an idea of how efficient the RPO was. If there was no scheduled stop, a mail bag would be put on a arm and the passenger train would grab the mail at speed as well as dump off mail bags as the train rolled thru...
Photo # two is GS6 4467 working 2-248and just getting under way out of Martinez with a train load of Opera lovers, bound for Sacramento and 18 cars worth...The good old days.....

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Barstool. Thanks for your ongoing series of wonderful steam era SP shots which never fail to brighten my day.
I think there must be some other reason today's 246 was missing it's RPO, as it was not until 1967 that the LBJ administration killed the RPOs.
I wonder if that is a parlor car on the rear?
AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Outstanding, Barstool

2472Don
Manoa Valley, O'ahu

Looks to me like one of the lounge cars that were converted to a coach.  I think during WWII.

Some were used on old train 43-44 as a rider coach in the mid 1950's, when I rode from Pomona to Colton, Monday evenings to get back to work from my SUN-MON off job.

Thanks Mundo, I've seen a number of photos here of Sacramento locals with these lounge rebuilt to coaches in the consist, and had thought they were operating in Parlor car service.
The OG and SP TTs never seem to list the equipment on these trains, which could be an indication they were always coach only, though I think the old SF to the state capital could support a whisky and cigar first class service.
AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

I  am no expert, but think back into history some of them carried a bag-lounge car for Sacramento State Capital fokls.  Their are photos of these cars on the local trains.

May 1947  TT  shows two trains each way with diner  and/or club car service.

I'm sure enjoying your SP photos. This is the SP I like instead of the bloody noses. Keep up the good work.

Just to clarify....The HPO's were not meant as a replacement for the
RPO's. They were an adjunct to them. In most cases they ran routes
where trains didn't go although there was a Bend ,OR to Eugene, OR
HPO that I am aware of that was running in 1971. Thirty nine years
of post office and I worked both RPO's and HPO's. When I worked in
Santa Clara, CA in the late 50's and early 60's I had the pleasure
(not always) of taking the mail to the various SF to SJC trains
running with RPO's I also got to hang the pouch on the mail crane for
#75 the west bound Lark serving the peninsula and passing through
Santa Clara at a scheduled 0718 each day. On one occasion, due to a
split switch ahead of #75, it had to stop in Santa Clara and I actually
got to hand the mail pouch to the RPO clerk whose name I remember
for some reason - Wes Sproule. Enough memories for now. Thanks for
the photos. I wish I had taken more at the time.

How many miles of route mileage did the SP have in the state of California alone?

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

We had a Hipo out of Mojave during my brief service at the Mojave PO in 1954. Didn't last long.
RPOs lost out because airplanes were faster.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Barstool Wrote:

> In shot # one,
> 2463 is working train 246, minus the RPO as the
> railroads had lost the mail contracts.

Was 2463 and company substituting for a sick RDC this day? Tr.246 was one of the schedules SP 10 held down during its time on the Cal-P.

Evan....2463 was running the two car 246 train about two weeks before SP10 took over. My favorite 2486 was the engine that handed this train for the longest time and she disappeared to work the Sac daylight for a while and then worked some freight and I heard she was being stripped at bayshore....

agentatascadero Wrote:
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> The OG and SP TTs never seem to list the
> equipment on these trains, which could be an
> indication they were always coach only, though I
> think the old SF to the state capital could
> support a whisky and cigar first class service.
> AA

Stan, Gregory Lee Thompson has an interesting commentary about this in his "The Passenger Train in the Motor Age: California's Rail and Bus Industries, 1910-1941" (an absolute must read for anyone serious about SP/AT&SF history). He points out (backed up by voluminous statistics) that while Oak-Sac was SP's most heavily traveled passenger corridor before WWII, SP nonetheless did not see fit to upgrade the quality of service on the locals (Senators) at a time it was pouring money into streamliners. He found it a bit inexplicable that SP would ignore its core business like that, and could only speculate about why - in terms uncomplimentary to SP administrators and their accounting methods. I have my own subjective theory about this, which doesn't count for a hill of beans.

EO